British team to break 1000 mph land speed record

The British team that broke the land speed record in 1997 by going 763mph has decided on a model that will go to speeds of 1000 mph (1,610km/h).

The new design has a major look change with the specifications altered drastically to reach the 1000 mph landmark with the most significant change being the Eurofighter jet engine being placed above a hybrid rocket

Initial testing will be started on 2011 in Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape Province, South Africa, due to its surface which is a dried-out lake bed

The driver for the record atempt will be Wing Commander Andy Green “It’s hard enough to support a six-tonne car on metal wheels but soft enough to allow the wheels just to sink in maybe 10mm”.

There were many problems faced as one would expect with such a large scale project. the major planning differences was again in the engines as the original plan was to place a smaller 200 kg engine on top of a large 1000 kg EJ200 Eurofighter Typhoon engine.

But while the planning was going well it was understood that more power and speed will be needed so a bigger more powerful 400kg rocket was used to overcome the aerodynamic drag. However this gave another challenge to the designers as the car became unstable so the positioning of the 2 rockets were changed.

“The change, though, has had some beneficial side-effects, he added.

“We can now get a good chassis structure across the top which means we can now have a really good mounting for a single fin, whereas before with the rocket on top it was right in the way of where the fin would go. That meant we were going to have to have two fins, one on each side; and they were occupying the space where ideally we’d like to put in parachute cans. So, there’ve been lots of small gains out of this.”

With the design now fixed, the car can be built. This will be done at a special facility in Bristol’s docklands area, right next to Brunel’s famous iron ship SS Great Britain.

The car that is called Bloodhound is now in it’s implementation phase with planning being completed. Now all the British team needs is to raise £10m in funds to complete the dream of going 1000 mph (1,610km/h).

The team has also developed a simulation of the vehicle in action.

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